Boiler-feeder



A. J. SMHHERS.

Boum FEEDER.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE I. i920.

Patented Dec. 28, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET all JN VEIYTOR f/d m/ /Jens.

14 TTORNE'Y A. J. SMITHERSL BOILER FEEDER.

APPLICATION FILED .IU-NE I| I920.

`Patented pee. 28,1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

l A TToR/VEY' .ARTUR J'. SMITHERS, OF KANSAS CETY, MISSOURI.

BOILER-FEEBER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

ratentednee. ze, 1920.

Application iled .Tune 1, 1920. Serial No. 385,397.

10 all ywhom t may concern.'

and useful improvements in Boiler-Feeders; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to boiler feeders and particularly to a device for feeding the condensate from steam which has been used for industrial purposes or heating purposes back to the boiler.

My invention relates to that type of feeder in which there is employed an accumulator tank into which the condensate may be initially fed and means whereby air above the accumulated body of water within the ac cumulator or tank may be exhausted as the tank becomes filled with water or condensate, the air exhaust continuing until such time that the condensate reaches a determined level, whereupon the airy exhaust will be closed and steam admitted to exert pressure upon the body of water or condensate and force it into the boiler, the action being entirely automatic in response to variations of the level of the waterwithin the accumulator tank.

An important feature of this type of feeder is the provision of means whereby the condensate or feed water may be fed to' the boiler practically continuously so that the water level in the boiler will be maintained constant or substantially so. To this end there is provided a boiler feeder consista ing of a two-oompartmental unit so designed that during the operation of the device one compartment will be delivering water to the boilerwhen the other is accumulating it and vice versa so that there will be practically a continuous feed in contra-distinction to an accumulator in which there is an intermittent accumulation of condensate and a corresponding intermittent discharge for air. In a device which is single acting the tank accumulates so much water before it discharges it that the level in the boiler surges overD such a wide range as to prevent the feeding of the water to the best advantage. Where, however, a compartmental tank is provided, as in the present invention, so that the compartments alternately feed and rece'ive the liquid supplied from the industrial Vplant or heating plant before it is passed to the boiler, the water level in the boiler may be maintained constant or substantially so with the attendant advantages.

My invention consists in the claimed improvement in the above described apparatus. One form of my invention is illustrated in the drawings, in which- Figure I is a view partly in section and partly in perspective of a double acting boiler feeder constructed in accordance with my invention.

F ig. il is an end view of the same. Fig. Ill is a detail view of a cam shaft for operating the air and steam valves.

g1g. IV is an end view of the cam shaft, an

Fig. V is an end view of one of the actuating arms for the cam shaft as well as one of thel throw arms for the valve mechanism for the tank.

Referring now to the drawings by numerals of reference:

l and 2 designate twin compartments of an accumulator tank which are separated by the partition 3. Each compartment or chamber is substantially a counterpart of the other and eachis provided with a valve inlet e and a valve 'discharge 5. The inlet 4 is connected to a conduit or pipe 6 from the plant by a pipe 7 in which may be located a hand valve 8 so that the pipe 7 may be closed if desired. rThe discharge pipe 5 is provided with an outwardly-opening check valve 9 so that water from the pipe 6 may enter through port 4: but not throughpipe 5 and so that the water may discharge from pipe 5, opening valve 9 in the direction of the arrow when the valve 10 closes the opening il.

The pipe 6 is provided with check valve ll and l2 opening in the direction of the boiler but closed when boiler pressure eX- ceeds the feed water pressure from the plant.

The pipe 7 for the tank l is provided with a check valve 13 which opens in the direction of the boiler and said pipe is connected to pipe 6 in front of the check valve 11 by a pipe 14, in which is a check valve 15, opening in the direction of the tank 1. rlhe pipe 7 is also connected to the tank 1 by a branch dis-V charge pipe 16 in which is a check valve 17 opening in the direction of the boiler so that when the valve 10 for chamberV 1 is closed, water may pass from the chamber 1 through pipe 16into pipe 7 and into pipe 18 to boiler, the pipe 18 being a continuation of and in line with pipe 6 but separated therefrom by the check valves 11 and 12.

The valves 10 and 10 are provided with vertical valve stems 19 and 19, passing through stungboxes 20 and 20 in the top of the compartments 1 andV 2 and adapted to be operated by a crank shaft21, to the oppositely disposed cranks 22 and 23 of which the stems 19 and 19 are connected by links 24 and 24.

The crankshaft 21 is mounted in bearings 25, 26 and 27 and it has depending arms 28 and 29 which are provided with spring joints 30 and 31 to be contacted by throw levers to be referred to hereinafter, the spring joints 30 and 31 tending to relieve the shocks when the throw levers strike them.

It will be apparent that when the valve 10 is unseated, the valve 10 will be seated and vice versa, this being desirable since when the device is first started, the one chamber should have its inlet opened while the other is closed because if both were open at the same time the water would How equally into both compartments 1 and 2. As shown, however, the water will first pass from 6 through check valve 11 and through pipe 7 because check valve 12 will be closed by boiler pressure preponderating over the pressure in pipe 6. As the water passes into 7 it will be accumulated in tank 2 because valve 10 is unseated, valve 10 being seated during this time.

After compartment 10 has accumulated suicient condensate to cause certain iiowactuated mechanism to effect a closing movement to be imparted to the valve 10 and an opening movement to be imparted to valve 10, the water will cease to pass into compartment or chamber 2 and will pass through pipe 14, through pipe 7 past valve 10 and into compartment 1. While this is going on certain mechanism will admit steamV pressure into chamber2 and Vforce the accumulated water from chamber 2 through pipe 5 past check valve 9, through pipe 7 past check valve 12 into 18 because the water will preponderate over the boiler pressure in pipe 18 since the receivers are above the water line of the boiler, thus preponderating the hydrostatic pressure in the chambers 1 and 2'over thatV in the boiler.

A novel form of air and steam valve mechanism and' compartment inlet valve mechanism is illustrated in Figs. I and II as consisting of certain elements which I will hereinafter describe.

The actuating mechanism for compartment 2 being substantially the same as that of compartment 1, I will refer to the mechanism for compartment 2 by natural numbers and to the corresponding mechanism on the opposite side of the tank by primed numbers.

Projecting through the compartment walls are rock shafts 32 on which is a Hoat 33 on the inside of the compartment 2. A crank arm 34 is connected to the outstanding end of the crank shaft 32 and it car ries a link 35 in pivotal connection with a crank arm 36, rigid on the rock shaft 37, which carries the radial arms or fingers 38 and 39.

0n the shaft 37 s loosely mounted a weighted arm 41 which may be swung toward the crank arm 29 when the float 33 rises to cause arm 29 to contact with 41. Then 41 strikes arm 29, the rock shaft 21 will be rotated to seat the valve 10 and unseat the valve 10. Since the arm 41 is loosely mounted on shaft 37 it will be thrown over with some force against the arm 29 but the shock will be absorbed by the spring 31. When the arm 39 is raised to cause actuation of arm 41, it will also cause actuation of a weighted arm 42 on the cam shaft 43, separate from but in line with shaft 37 and the throwing over of arm 42 will cause it to contact with the arm 44, rigidY on shaft 43 so as to open the steam valve and close the air port to shut ofi' air communication with chamber 2 and open steam thereto.

The air and steam chest 45 communicates with chamber 2 through a pipe 46 and the bottom of the chest 45 is provided with an opening 47 adapted to be closed by a valve 48 on the stem 49. The stem 49 is provided with a slot 50 to be engaged by a cam 51 to raise it so that the valve 48 may close opening 47. On the other end Vof the stem 49 is a valve 52, which is adapted to close the steam port 53 in communication with the pipe 54, leading to boiler pressure. rTherefore, when the tank 2 is filling with the valve 10 unseated, the valve 48 will be unseated and the valve 52 will be closed. As the water fills the tank, the air will exhaust .through the opening 47, but when. the fioat 33 rises to cause arm 39 to throw over the weighted arms 41 and 42, the valve 10 will be closed and the shaft 43 will be turned so as' to close port. 1

At the same time the corresponding mechanism will be effective in opening the air port for the chamber 1 and closing the steam port. i Therefore, the water from 2 will pass through 7 into 18 and the condensate water from the plant will pass into compartment 'zov the air port and open the steam e 1 through pipes 14 and 7, it being understood that when the valve 10 is closed the water exhausts through 5, past the pipe 9 and when the pipe 10 is closed, the water exhausts through 16 past the check valve 17.

When the water passes out of 2, the ioat will drop, swinging the arm 38 into contact with weighted arms 41 and 41 so that the arm 41 will be thrown out of engagement with arm 29 and be thrown against 39. At the same time 88 will throw 42 over against the arm and cause the cam 51 to reciprocate the stem 49 so that the air valve 48 will be unseated and the steam valve closed. Then as soon as the mechanism for chamber 1 operates to turn the crank 21, the valve 10 will close and valve 10 will open.

The valve casings or chests 45 and 45 are connected to the boiler (not shown) through the medium of a steam pipe 56 and its branches 57 and 57 it being understood that the device is thus rendered double-acting since the steam will be admitted to first one water compartment and then the other, dependent upon which particular steam valve 52 or 52 is unseated.

The arms 44 and 55 have spring joints, as illustrated in Fig. V. Eachjoint consists of an inserted leaf spring 40 between the two sections of the arms so that a blow given to the end of the arms by the weighted lever 42 will be absorbed by the spring 40.

1What I claim and desire to secure by Letters-Patent is:

1. A boiler feeder comprising a compartment-al tank, automatic positively operated means for directing condensate into the compartments of the tank, valved outlets for said compartments, and means for opening one compartment when the other is closed and vice versa.

2. A boiler feeder comprising a twin compartment tank, automatic positively operated means for delivering condensate into the compartments of the tank, a valved dischargel port for each compartment, and means responsive to variations in the water level within the compartments to cause the discharge port for one compartment to open when the other is closed and vice versa.

3. A steam boiler feeder comprising a twin compartment tank, pipes in the bottom of said compartments, one of which is a valved inlet port and the other a discharge port, a valve for the inlet port of each compartment, a crank shaft connected to the valves and adapted to be rotated to alternately open and close said valves, and floatactuated means for operating the crank shaft.

4. A steam boiler feeder comprising a twin compartment tank, pipes in the bottom of said compartments, one of which is a valved inlet port and the other a discharge port, a valve for the inlet port-of each compartment, a crank shaft connected to the valves and adapted to be rotated to alternately open and close said valves, ioat-actuated means for operating the crank shaft, a chest communicating with each compartment and having a steam valve and an air valve, and means operated by the float-actuated means to alternately open and close the steam and air valves.

5. A boiler feeder comprising a twin compartment tank, inlet ports for said compartments, discharge ports for said compartments having outwardly opening check valves, and alternately-operated, float-actuated valves for said inlet ports.

6. A steam boiler feeder comprising a compartmental tank, valved ports for said compartments, arms for actuating said valves, said arms having spring joints to absorb shocks, weights for contact with said arms, and float-actuated means for operating said weights.

n testimony whereof I affix my signature.

ARTHUR J. SMITHERS. 

